Operating bar receiving head for shaft of gate operating mechanism for railway cars



Patented F eb. 17, 17953 UNITED STATES PATENT F FICE OPERATING BARRECEIVING HEADFOR SHAFT oF GATE OPERATING MECH- ANIsM Foa yRAILWAY CARSApplication August 24, 1949, Seria1'No.'112,033

'2 Claims.

This invention relates, generally, to gate operating mechanisms forrailway car hoppers and it has particular relation tothe head which isarranged to receive a removable operating bar.

It is conventional to provide a gate at the bottom of a railway carhopper and mount the same for horizontal movement. On the underside oithe gate there is provided rack means which are arranged vto cooperatewith pinion means carried by a horizontally extending shaft. theshaft isrotated the piniondrives -therack to move the gateto Aorfrom the closedposition as the case may be. The shaft projects to one side of the gateoper-ating mechanism for the attachment of a head ythat is arrangedtoreceive an operating bar insertedfrom along one side of the car by anattendantfor rotating the shaft to control the movement of the gate. Itis to the construction of the head which is attached to the shaft forreceiving the operating bar that the present invention is directedparticularly.

Among the objects of this invention are: To provide slots in the headthrough which the operating bar can be inserted in such manner that itcan 'project far enough through the head to permit the application offorceat each end, such as provided by two attendants, to break the gateloose, the slotsbeing shaped so as to permit the bar to `be swung to anacute angle position with respect to the axis of rotation and to Ypermitsubsequent shaft rotation with the bai` in such position as to clear theadjacent side of the car hopper; and to provide .two such slots at rightangles toeach other in the head so thatthe bar can be inserted from anyone of four sides.

rOtherobjectsof this inventionwill, inpart, be obvious and in partappear hereinafter.

This invention is disclosed in the embodiment thereof shown in theaccompanying drawing and it comprises the features of construction,combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will bevexemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth and the scope ofthe application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.

For a more complete understanding of the nature and scope of thisinvention, reference can be had to the following detailed description,taken together with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a view, in end elevation, of an outlet assembly for thehopper of a railway hopper car having an operating bar receiving headvmounted on the shaft and constructed in accordance with this invention;

When

Figure 2 is -a View, in end elevation, of the operating head;

Figure 3 is a, detail sectionalfview, taken along the line 3-3 of Figure1; and

Figure 4 is a longitudinal sectional view through theoperating headshown inFigure '1, the showing in Figure 4 being at an enlarged scale.

Referring now particularly to Figure l lof the drawing, it will benoted-thatthe reference char.- acter l5 designates, generally, ranoutlet assembly for the hopper (not shown) of arailwa'y hopper type carwhich is provided with a gate yI'I that is arranged to be movedhorizontally. On'tliefunderside of the gate II 'is a rack I2 which isar'- ranged to cooperate with a pinion I3that is `fast on a transverselyextending operating shaft If/I. The end of the shaft Ill which projectstothe left of the outlet assembly I5 as viewed in Figure f1, has asquare shank for receiving an'operatin'g head ywhich is indicated,generally, at I5 and is constructed in accordance with this invention.The operating head yI5 includes an Iintegrally formed sleeve -portion'IS which has "a square opening I'I, Figure', therethrough Vforreceiving the squareshan'kof the shaft III.l This Aconstruction providesfor non-rotatably y'mounting the operating head I5 on the Shaft I4, Api'r'i or yrivet I8 extends through the sleeve portion I6 andthe shankof the shaft I4 -to maintain these parts in"- separable. A flange I9isformed integrally with the sleeve portion I6 and -it bears against@the outer end oi' a collar 2li which extends horizon` tally from oneside of the ou't'letassembly 'ID so as to guide the operating head I5 inits rotation for rotating the shaft Id.

AThe operating head I5 also includes ,an integrally formed operating barvreceiving portion that is indicated, generally, Iat 23. It will beuni'- derstood that the shank of the operating shaft itl extends onlythrough the sleeve portion I6 but does not project a substantialdistance "therebe yond into the operating bar receiving portion 23.

The operating bar receiving portion 23 is formed, in part, by four angleshaped sections 24, Figure 3, which Vextend lengthwise of the shaft I4and of the operating head I5 as shown. The four angle shaped sections 24are positioned back to back so as to deiine two slots 25 which arespaced ninety degrees apart and intersect in the vicinity of the axis ofrotation of the operating head I5 and shaft I4. The slots 25 areprovidecgsfor receiving therethrough an operating bar As shown in Figure1 by full lines, the operating bar 26 can extend through either of theslots 25 and can be inserted from any one of four sides, whichever maybe desirable. In this position as shown in Figure 1 the operating bar 26extends perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the operating head I5and shaft I4. This permits an attendant to grasp each end of theoperating bar 26 and apply their combined force for the purpose ofbreaking the gate II loose from the position in which it is in. Only alimited movement of the operating bar 26 ordinarily is permitted when itextends in this right angle relationship to the axis of rotation sincethe adjacent wall of the car hopper slopes outwardly and upwardly andthus interferes with rotation of the bar 26 beyond a limited extent.

In order to permit continued rotation of the operating head I5 and shaftI4, it is withdrawn to the position shown by broken lines in Figure 1and is inclined at an acute angle to the axis of rotation of theoperating head I5. In this position the operating bar 26 can be swungthrough a considerably greater extent and the shaft I4 can be rotated tocomplete the movement of the gate Il to either the closed or the openposition.

Now it is important that the movement of the operating bar 26 to theinclined position be limited. For this purpose end walls 21 are formedintegrally with the operating bar receiving portion 23 at the ends ofthe slots 25 and they define the ends of the same. It will be observedthat the end walls 21 have inclined surfaces 28 which converge towardthe axis of rotation of the operating head I5 and thus provide outflaredends for the slots 25 against which the operating bar 26 can rest andwhich limit the movement thereof in the manner described.

I! desired, the operating bar receiving portion 23 can be provided witha rectangular end section 29 for the purpose of receiving a wrench forassisting in turning the shaft I4 if necessary. As shown in Figure 2,the end section 29 may have a rectangular opening 30 for receiving acorrespondingly shaped stud to permit the application of additionaltorque to the shaft I4.

Since certain changes can be made in the foregoing construction anddifferent embodiments of the invention can be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope thereof, it is intended that all matter shownin the accompanying drawing and described hereinbefore shall beinterpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed as new is:

1. For combination with a shaft carrying pinion means cooperating withrack means on a gate used for controlling the opening through a hopperof a railway hopper type car, means for rotating said shaft including anoperating head having a sleeve portion at one end to telescope over andbe operatively connected to one end of said shaft and a tubularoperating bar receiving portion at the other end, said tubular operatingbar receiving portion having two pairs of longitudinally extendingslotted openings in aligned relation on opposite sides of its axis ofrotation, each pair of openings being adapted to receive transversely ofsaid axis a removable operating bar having a maximum cross-sectionaldimension slightly less than the Width of said slots, each pair ofopenings being shaped to receive said bar commonly therethroughperpendicular to said axis and each opening having its sides theprojections of which are transverse to said axis defined by inclinedsurfaces whereby said bar can be moved away from the perpendicularposition to one at an acute angle to said axis.

2. For combination with a shaft carrying pinion means cooperating withrack means on a gate used for controlling the opening through a hopperof a railway hopper type car, means for rotating said shaft comprisingan operating head having a sleeve portion at one end to telescope overand be operatively connected to said shaft and a hollow operating barreceiving portion at the other end formed of four angle shape sectionsfor extending lengthwise of said shaft in spaced relation to defineslots spaced ninety degrees apart, and integrally formed side wallsuniting said angle shaped sections and converging towards the axis ofrotation of said head to provide out flared sides for said slots, saidslots providing clear spaces at right angles to each other for looselyreceiving an operating bar having a maximum cross-sectional dimensionslightly less than the width of said slots in right angular relation tosaid axis and projecting from opposite sides of said head to break saidgate loose, said out flared sides of said slots constituting stops forlimiting tilting of said bar from said right angular relation inpositions where it clears the car hopper during subsequent rotation ofsaid shaft to move said gate.

GEORGE B. DOREY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 166,514 Dunn Aug. 10, 1875904,819 Troeller Nov. 24, 1908 949,083 Mossberg Feb. 15, 1910 1,049,455Clarkson Jan. '1, 1913 1,334,154 Harrison Mar. 16, 1920 1,520,834 MaloneDec. 30, 1924 2,020,863 Willoughby Nov. l2, 1935 2,222,280 Batho Nov.19, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date r754,013 France Oct. 30,1933 450,273 Germany Oct. 3, 1927

